#getting involved with them was genuinely life-altering stuff

[compacflt]

wow very cool. as a european i am learning a lot about the us navy and defense and everything from your blog haha! idk if you've answered this before but what made you wanna work in defense?

Russia invading ukraine on my birthday lol. though i was always interested in military history/military fiction even as a kid. that was just the watershed moment for me personally

i don’t want to work IN defense though. I want to write ABOUT defense. still not sure what that looks like exactly for me. move to DC definitely. maybe get a position at one of the twenty trillion trade publications there are around here. Or comms job, govt job, journalism job… not sure. hopefully i will figure it out ! would love to write fiction for a living but im realistic enough to know that’s an oxymoron

(Also, side note, i am very flattered, & i know i say this somewhat often but i feel the need to repeat it every once in a while… please don’t take anything i say on this blog / ESPECIALLY in my writing as fact. i misrepresent stuff and get stuff wrong all the time, sometimes on purpose for story reasons. I try my best but i simply lack experience & worldview and have spent functionally zero time being an Adult or having to deal with Adult topics [still do not know what a 401k is!]. for instance if you even mention the words “security clearance” or “congressional confirmation hearing” in the general vicinity of my fics, the plot, nay, the entire CONCEPT, goes up in flames, as i discuss in this post. i really appreciate this comment don’t get me wrong But there are definitely better/more accurate places to learn about these topics than a 20y.o. A&D intern who is only just beginning their career & is still confused about many of the basics of real life. I have a lot of growing up still left to do & you really don’t have to listen to me)

[invested-in-your-future]

I have curious to know more about that:

In your version what would Jaune fallout would be?

Would he be an outcast or a you suck speech to be better?

How would the team dynamic be especially after the situation?

If I were to alter stuff in V1-V3, the bully arc would need some significant changes - far too many things in a show are built around excusing him rather than making him confront his flaws.

I think I said most of these before, but if I were to put it into a list.

Starting with the Bully Arc:

DON'T have Pyrrha help Jaune save Cardin and actually show that while his mindset is toxic, Jaune has the conviction to risk it all when pushed - of course, since Pyrrha wouldn't help him there, Jaune would actually get hurt, making the confrontation a bit messier even if the outcome is the same. And Cardin seeing someone like him put his life on the line to save him would likely sting a lot more.

DON'T do the weird "Ursa Grimm like honey" at all - the show has literal bullies prey on people in the forest, and Grimm are attracted to negative emotions - this means we don't get the "harrowing" scene of Jaune throwing honey at people and the whole plot is a bit less silly - and that means Jaune is NOT here because of blackmail or anything - having Jaune risk his life to save Cardin despite him being a bully is good enough as it highlights the qualities needed for being a Huntsmen and there must be no possible upsides to Jaune doing this - Pyrrha won't change her opinion and she is not involved in the fight - there's no benefit for him doing it other than it being his calling.

DO make Pyrrha genuinely angry with Jaune and have Jaune actually openly apologize to her after the Cardin incident and come clean to her.

DO have Cardin threaten to blackmail Jaune, but resolve it with Jaune coming clean to his team first (ALL of them) and then resolving to come clean to Ozpin and co.

DO have Ozpin shrug it off, either when Jaune comes clean or when Cardin decides to rat him out because, to him, the forest events would be all the proof he needed that Jaune has "needed qualifications" - can even throw in some shady Ozpin stuff and imply the teams are the way they are for a reason too.

DON'T have just Jaune and Pyrrha train. DO have the entire team JNPR decide to work spar together and train together to help him and make him regain their trust by putting in actual work to earn his spot.

There's no instant forgiveness or reassuring Jaune that he's great actually - everyone involved agrees that it's a work in progress, but his willingness to come clean and work to be a better person is a good first step. Team building.

Oh look we just got done with Jaune Arc arc of V1 in, like, two episodes instead of four or five.

V2 stuff

Just erase the "trying to woo Weiss" arc for Jaune Arc. Completely. Have the feud be about Cardin shifting targets and fighting Pyrrha in that sparring match and Jaune being unable to stay in his lane when she handled them just fine herself.

Drop the "I can't dance part" from Neptune. How about Neptune, despite his womanizer façade, actually likes guys but thinks it would make him seem uncool if he asked a guy out to a dance. Here, you have an actual LGBT rep two volumes in without "having to build up a relationship", and it ties nicely into the theme of dealing with toxic masculinity and how it affects different people. And we avoid a scene where two guys treat Weiss like an object they own.

It overall also ties better into the cross-dressing segment because it now becomes Jaune basically going - "Look, I learned my lesson, and I am comfortable without stereotypical macho nonsense" to Pyrrha. And it's a message to Neptune that there's nothing "silly" about not adhering to heteronormative "coolness" - oh look, suddenly there's no need for a laugh track of everyone pointing out that a guy in a dress is oh-so-funny in this diverse and accepting world of Remnant. EDIT: also yes monty intended ot to be about him keeping promises but that still works - Jaune regressing at the start by whiteknighting is him faltering on the promise he made to the team on v1 arc of this version - so the message of him reaffirming his promises still remains.

That's just off the top of my head in what could make him more bearable without sweeping his flaws or his forgery under the rug.

There are PLENTY minuscule things to change that would expand upon his characterization in a way that doesn't detract from the actual protagonists.

BUT

Since I am keeping the first three volumes as-is instead, I am treating the Fall of Beacon as Jaune's wake-up call for self-reflection.

Jaune had quite a bit of time to rethink everything that happened in Beacon - what he did or didn't do, what he said, and his overall priorities in life.

Coming face to face with how insignificant he ended up being ironically had provided him with a sense of clarity - everything falling apart allowed him to look at it all from a different angle.

He did not like the person he used to be, and that's where V4r starts - Jaune views his staying at Beacon due to forgery as a debt Jaune can never repay, and he strives to be a better person - actually worthy of that chance. He also understands just how privileged and stupid his behavior during Beacon was.

He has newfound respect for Pyrrha for having put up with him all this time. He also is regretful over how his antics had prevented them from actually exploring what could have been between them till it was way too late.

There's no melting her weapons for himself, no hero's journey for him. After the tragedies that hit Beacon Jaune ended up with a more clearcut understanding of who he wants to be and how he wants to honor Pyrrha's memory, in turn having processed grief in a bit more healthier way than the others.

[granulesofsand]

🗝️🏷️ discussion of RAMCOA with nonphysical examples, sh/suicide

For every person I see opening up about RAMCOA, there’s another telling the world to never so much as glance in its direction. We are shit at tone sometimes, so not to be rude, but I do have reasons I dislike the silence.

Reading about tortured children should never be comfortable, and if you have no reason to suspect a similar history, you can filter away the nastiness. We will never be able to have that ignorance, even if our front-facing alters don’t remember.

If you do suspect a history or end up having one, congrats! Time to start deprogramming. Chances are if you went through this flavor of hell, the stability you have is a cover for your involvement, past or current. Either way, I’ve never seen someone survive without any side effects, and addressing the problem is the only way to actually solve it.

Omega (death/sh) programs can be activated by looking into trauma material. Any trauma material. And a good amount of other stuff, like trying to leave your area or not reporting back to an assigned group member. Our omega programs have been passively problematic for years, and our first active cases were around 4 years old. It’s a common program line, and some groups install functioning versions very young. We did not know about any kind of abuse at 4, despite being trafficked and regularly hurt our whole life. It was triggered by existing too close to a ritual site, and we had sh behaviors and runaway attempts for ‘knowing too much’.

We were taught by abusers that what they were doing was good and normal at the same time they were teaching us we were dirty for living it and nobody would believe us. Pretty much all of that category was just convincing us not to tell on them, with punishment for breaking cult rules. We’ve read about survivors taking the ‘Golden Rule’ as ‘Silence’, and we have a similar experience. Any breaking of the quiet without direct harm at their hands is another inch towards safety. If we can convince ourselves they really did lie about their omnipotence, we can shake some programs based in those beliefs.

We were told that our system/body specifically was bad and wrong, and that these things happened to us because we deserved it. We don’t hold the same standard for outsiders, and their stories make us think we might not have been predestined for the life we got.

Outsiders who have no trauma history, and sometimes those who do, can be pretty insensitive. We have been harassed for having been sexually assaulted, called names for telling/not telling parts of our story, and insulted in various unpleasant ways because we were forced to perpetrate. We still commonly get a reaction of disbelief, even after months of building trust and then giving only vague summaries. The more people hear about this form of maltreatment and its effects, the higher their tolerance will be when someone needs them to show up.

It makes us feel more secure in our own memories when other survivors have similar experiences. To know that it can actually be that bad, it isn’t the norm, and others have gotten out and started healing is more weight off our shoulders I knew we carried. I, and other alters, have shame pits that we can sink into quick. The pure validation of knowing it happened, the flex tape of understanding it wasn’t their fault, the basis for comparison we have never had in anyone but our abusers. It helps us, even if it also hurts.

Silence is what they wanted. ‘They’ being the pedophile rings, cults, and other organized groups that rely on programming children and anyone else they got their hands on for profit. I genuinely do believe more people fit into our community than currently admit, and the gray doesn’t become visible until you open your eyes to the damn black and white.

[ikemenomegas]

Any thoughts to shake loose on any of your Naruto guys, Io? I like your mun-name!! 💕

From the notebook

Loose leaf ideas:

I'm so sorry, I have no idea what a mun-name is but thank you anyways 😅. Also sorry it's taken so long, I was trying to do the Make a Wish prompts, which I've finally gotten mostly bullet pointed out. Lucky thing because I all but finished one of the last two and then lost it due to my own stupidity... so I've been sadly trying to rewrite it /sigh. I decided to finally shake free those ideas in the mean time, since I haven't posted any writing in a while

Yamato (Tenzo, but this name is for private use)

Because he was raised in Root, he mostly emotes via micro expressions so his Alpha has learned to be really good at reading those looks. His Alpha can literally stare at his face for hours while they talk. Yamato stares right back. Please ask for a booth if you go to a restaurant with him. Everyone thinks you're making bedroom eyes at each other when you're figuring out your next week's meal prep. Actual bedroom eyes are near lethal levels.

He's a pretty tall guy so when you first started spending time at his place, all the cups and plates and things are also really high up. He barely used any of his lower cupboards. When you first move in together, he asks you where all of your stuff is and you think he's joking until you realize he genuinely doesn't check any of those cabinets or drawers that he doesn't use...

All of his furniture is handmade, as in through the wood style. It's all very functional, lots of squares, but elegant. If want different shapes he's really willing and eager to learn how intricate he can get with his jutsu. He's got a remarkably artistic streak, despite his serious demeanor. You'll never have to buy a new bookshelf again, he'll just make them.

Yamato likes quality time and gifts as his receiving love languages. He works really hard for the village and having someone focused on him and appreciative of his hard work and attentive to his needs is key to being a good partner for him

You can't go wrong if you show your appreciation by making him things that he likes, ie a craft, homemade item, or really involved food. He's also not opposed to an evening of pampering where he has your full undivided attention after a day spent sight seeing.

Gaara

He doesn't make the first move in a relationship, which leaves him in a fun lil' stalemate for a while with his eventual mate, because you can't make moves on the Kazekage and he's thinking "I'm the Kazekage, it would be an unfair power dynamic to tell them I think about them every time I write poetry lately..." On a trip back to Suna, Temari takes one look at him and you and then scolds Kankuro because "I can't be the one to manage both kinds of diplomatic relations. Please do something to make my life a little easier." Kankuro then attempts to organize scenarios for you and Gaara to meet. These go poorly in the way of all comedic anime interludes but do result in the two of you bonding more closely.

Gaara was raised to be the leader of a military nation, but he winds down by engaging in more traditional artistic pursuits. All three of the siblings actually have a talent in at least one area of the more refined arts. Gaara is very accomplished at calligraphy, and I'm not kidding about the poetry, he really does compose different works and a lot of them are very good. He even worked hard at some point during his courtship to create a public stone garden in the village which he sometimes alters during festivals so it has different designs.

He is very responsible when it comes to Kazekage duties. He's also been performing them since before he turned 15, and has almost no penchant for mischief. However, he can be easily coaxed away from his office in the name of training his children/students, where he can be further tricked into simply enjoying himself. He's actually a really patient, insightful teacher.

He has an unfortunate habit, only slightly curbed by age, of being willing to drag everyone into a goal he decides is worthwhile. While he mostly used credible threats to get what he wanted as a child, he's since become very adept at manipulation. Mostly, he's genuine and persistent, but he also knows how to get other people to want to follow him. This includes knowing the exact Look to give his mate whenever he wants something.

I think you could easily write him as demiromantic/aromantic. He isn't romantically attracted to anyone right away, and if he does develop those feelings they aren't all-consuming, but there are certain people he can see himself partnering with for the rest of his life, and certain triggers for kicking those feelings off with his alpha.

Nagato

The more I research him, the more it is clear his canon outcome is the bad-end version of the shonen trio trope. Yahiko and Konan were in love with one another, and Nagato was the one who loved them both enough to follow them to the ends of the earth. Nothing in any world was ever going to deter him from that, so his Alpha needs to be pointed in the same direction, ideally devoted to Yahiko and his original Akatsuki as well.

Nagato is the one who guides his Alpha in believing in the ideals of Akatsuki. Before the original trio falls apart, this is done without any ultimatum or ulterior motive. Nagato genuinely believes in the dream Yahiko has, and felt very motivated to bring that hope to his Alpha. It was only afterwards that he truly started to fall in love with them, although that was the original spark.

He likes to read, although he seldom has the time or opportunity to do so. Jiraiya's taught all of the Ame orphans to read and write. He truly enjoys ready philosophical treatises and dialogues. He is a fan of fiction but very slow when reading these because he prefers to experience the world himself first hand, interacting with people and places. He once dreamed of traveling throughout Amegakure and the surrounding nations as a kind of pilgrim.

Nagato nearly died after he fought Hanzo for the first time, not because of his injuries, but because chakra depletion left him unable to sense his Alpha. Believing them dead while he was near delirious, he himself nearly died from the grief of losing Yahiko, and them on top of this loss, despite Yahiko's final wish.

In a version of the world where his Alpha does not survive Obito's slaughter of the original Akatsuki members, Nagato recovers their body and turns it into the Preta Path of Pain, appropriate given the path's callback to possessiveness and desire, and representation of the Hungry Ghost Realm. In the version where his Alpha survives, Nagato becomes very possessive over them, only willing to let them take missions for the Akatsuki alongside Konan, alone, or preferably not at all as you three nurse your grief within Amegakure.

Shisui

You know I love those Uchiha men. They just have a vibe... Shisui in particular. His appearances never make me think first of his death, but of his kindness and his protectiveness over the people he cares for; he dies smiling. Unfortunately, Shisui's path really only works in a non-massacre scenario, since he is approximately sixteen when he dies, which is too young for him to have a mating bond, although I do HC him as considering courting someone at the time the coup starts to take over his life. The with-massacre scenario is one in which Itachi is able to get Shisui out of the village, possibly that he secretly survives the fall thanks to his summons.

Shisui's parents were either not ninjas, or are individuals who have had to retire for the corp for some reason. What we know about him says he was the family breadwinner after he was made a jounin, which leads me to lean towards non-ninja parents. This is particularly interesting for Uchiha clan members, since we don't get to see what the civilian members of clan families do in the Naruto world and most assume the Uchiha clan is shinobi-dominated. It's doubly intriguing when we also know the famous Kagami Uchiha was his ancestor (likely grandfather > great grandfather if we base off other known generations). Since we don't have canon confirmation of this stuff, I guess it counts as a HC?

Given the above, he's the most likely of the Uchiha on my list to willingly and happily take on a civilian Alpha. While I haven't totally fleshed out the background for this pairing, I have toyed around with the idea of an acid-tongued relative of someone from the Daimyo's court whom Shisui met on a mission catching his attention. This oc is a bit of a tsundere with an infamous temper who only Shisui with his notable empathetic and pleasant demeanor is immune to. They become one of the Land of Fire ambassadors and Shisui travels with them on a sort of long-term assignment before they eventually settle together in the village.

The reason they settle in the village is that Shisui decides he wants to have kids and knows that the Uchiha will never risk the sharingan passing into the control of another family or political body. His alpha has to sign a bunch of paperwork relinquishing their ability to inherit anything that might give their family power over their and Shisui's children, but enjoys arguing enough that they remain an ambassador even after settling in Konoha so they can wipe the floor with anyone who has anything to say about Shisui being the reason for their departure.

In the survive-the-fall scenario, Shisui remains blind, retires from being a ninja, and lives with his Alpha in a civilian city, where they help hide his identity and spoil him as much as he will allow. There's potential in this scenario for a path which probably fixes Sasuke btw. There's a lot of options here.

Sai

He intentionally emotes more than Yamato, however while Yamato mostly keeps his facial expressions hidden, his reactions to his Alpha are almost always honest. Sai explicitly cultivates his ability to make facial expressions because he was trying to fit in with normal people, throw them off guard, and do his job as a spy better. This makes it more difficult for his Alpha to tell whether Sai is actually showing that he likes something or not. It takes a long time to figure it out. Eventually, his reactions naturally start to correspond with his emotions around family and friends so it's easier on everyone.

His Alpha thinks that Sai really doesn't like them at the beginning. Although he doesn't necessarily understand why, he picks up on this very quickly and tries to fix the situation throughout the next few months, to varying degrees of success. Eventually, he decides to show you how he feels by painting a portrait of you as he sees you. It's exactly as intimate as you'd think it would be. For better or worse, Sai eventually has to come out and say he can't come up with any courting gift more genuine than the portrait to show you how he feels about you personally, which will tip his Alpha off that he is interested in them.

Because he has difficulties showing his emotions, and also in understanding the nuances behind others' reactions, he likes straightforward methods of communication. He trusts his Alpha implicitly and is incredibly perceptive so he is able to read their responses to him. He enjoys words of affirmation the most and appreciates when his Alpha takes the time to talk through things with him. He also likes physical contact, craves it even, but can quickly become overstimulated depending on the situation. He genuinely wants people to like him and to have sincere connections with the people he meets by acting like himself. Although Sai works hard to "earn" his place among the other people in his generation, it takes him a long time to see that everyone has already accepted him, and to understand that relationships take time and hard work.

For many years, he believes he physically can't have children because Root made all of its operatives starting about 5 years before Sai joined infertile. This insights conflicting feelings in him. On the one hand he never has to worry about accidentally becoming pregnant, which is very nice when he starts navigating his physical desires with his mate. On the other hand, he will never have the option and that hurts, because so much was taken from him in the way of choice and this is another one of those things. The procedure may be reversible in some members because I can see Root forcing long-term operatives to have families with their targets to get closer to them, or being gross enough to try and breed operatives, but Sai doesn't know this.

He likes swimming. He has a favorite swimming spot on the Konoha river. It's the kind of activity that sincerely has no purpose, and he finds a serenity in it, in a similar way that lots of people find a zone of focus when running.

[clippy]

How did you become so interested in iasw? I’m genuinely curious and I would love to learn more about it! Also, what’s so special about… 𝐓 𝐇 𝐄 𝐂 𝐋 𝐎 𝐂 𝐊 .

Would you believe me if I said it was literally an accident LOL...

Like okay. I grew up going to WDW and Disneyland (as well as other theme parks but those were the main two; my dad grew up going to WDW so the obsession has spanned generations I guess lmao) small world was always a must-do, but my main theme park interests as a kid lied within everything Epcot-related (and it still does)

Anyway, my last trip to WDW prior to getting the Disney parks as a special interest was in 2014. I went with my high school band and it was kind of a whole thing (high school drama shit + spring break week + having to do performances in band) so we didn't get the most park time possible. We wound up skipping small world which makes me Wonder if this interest would have been kick started sooner if we didn't skip it. But anyway. Fast forward to 2018. I am visiting my friend (and now roommate) who is watching a bunch of animatronic and theme park videos and I, a clueless man, decided to watch with her and it literally awoke a sleeper cell in my brain or something because I've been *nonstop* obsessed ever since 🧍

Like literally during that session of watching videos I designed my objecthead version of Clockboy. My life has not known peace ever sense, and tbh has drastically been altered (I'll get into that later)

But yeah the Autism(TM) made me have an insatiable hunger for knowledge about everything small world-related... I still don't know EVERYTHING about it, as there are lots of variations and history, etc. involving the installments of the attraction outside of Disneyland, but my main focus is the original world's fair & Disneyland version of the attraction (since they're the same thing... Mostly) as well as IASW facades in general...

There are tons of people who have equally as niche interests within the attraction's history which I think is SO cool. Like the fact that this nearly 60 year old ride has enough meat on its bones to have whole sub-groups of what people like about it is endearing

The history about it is what has drawn me into it (aside from the funny clock) because it almost didn't happen! There was a near missed connection between a Pepsi exec and Walt Disney himself that, had that not happened, we wouldn't have gotten the ride at all. I don't want to relay the entire history here (the Imagineering Story & Behind the Attraction episodes about the world's fair attractions get into it, as well as a plethora of YouTube videos documenting the ride), but that story about the beginnings of it is so dear to me, and I can't explain why.

But anyway, since my primary focus is the original attraction and facades, I've done some reading about imagineers Mary Blair and Rolly Crump, who have become two of my favorite visual artists and large inspirations for me. Crump has a few books and interviews out that have been interesting to read, but admittedly I've had a hard time finding firsthand accounts from Blair herself. I'm sure some art out there but finding them has been tricky since I don't get a lot of time to do research in general (the stuff by Crump was all found on accident, and he also had the benefit of being alive until 2023 so getting firsthand accounts from him was easier)

Otherwise I am just... Constantly googling stuff and looking for old pictures and merchandise related to IASW. It gets me a lot of answers, surprisingly. I go to Disneyland at least once a month to go ride it and visit my boy.

Still not entirely sure WHY my brain fixated on IASW and the clock specifically, but that's just the hand I was dealt I guess 🤷 don't get me wrong, I still love Epcot stuff and have other silly theme park guys I love (RX-24.... 🥺) but the small world clock has such a stronghold on my brain and I genuinely don't think he's leaving any time soon LOL

It's so funny to me because 6 years ago, I would never have guessed this would have been my next special interest. I was working at a job I liked decently enough. I was still dropped out of school and had no urge to go back, and I was considering moving to Seattle... But now I work in a theme park doing a job I never saw myself having (which is fine, I like my job!), I'm back in school (pursuing a degree I hope I can spin into a career in theme park design 🤞), and I live in California now. Wild how that happens.

The small world clock may not be special to most people (I mean, a lot of people DO like him, I see tons of people taking photos in front of small world with him as the backdrop!) but he is extremely special to me. I treasure him so so so much, and do genuinely think my life has been better with him in it... It's silly that a funny clock face has done So Much to my brain and life but :'-) I love him so it's okay!

Anyway sorry that this is long and sappy LOL, you happened to ask this close to the 6 year anniversary of me getting into small world (it's on March 31 to be exact 😊) so it made me reflect a bit lol

TL;DR sources for more IASW info:

The Imagineering Story Episode 1: The Happiest Place on Earth (1964-1965 New York World's Fair stuff is about 35 min in) -- on Disney+

Behind the Attraction Episode 8: "it's a small world" -- on Disney+

"it's kind of a cute story" by Rolly Crump (interviews; written down by Jeff Heimbuch)

Defunctland's 1964-1965 NYWF video talks about it a decent amount if I remember right

any pictorial souvenir guides about the attraction (currently, and slowly, working on scanning mine in, and will share them once I do, but they're up on eBay a lot if you collect that sort of thing)

Sorry I don't have 🏴‍☠️ links for the D+ stuff or the book but I currently don't have the spoons to search for them

[i-am-beckyu]

rahhh i'm glad you're doing well and i hope works gets a little slower soon 🤍 also YUMMYYY thank you for the snippet i LOVE IT i'm genuinely so excited for it :DDD BECKYU CONTENTTT!!!!!! :3

and about serenityyyy i'll see what i can get! i've kind of been all around with my plot for serenity lately but it's slowly getting planned out (i've planned chapters 1-14 so far!)

i guess all i really need is a Spot for him cause techno's got his role, so does wilbur and ranboo and everyone else but so far i've just been stuck on using phil as a distant familial connection to tommy :v if i could i would want to try and get him involved with the other realms too, idrk :v

i also just did see that there's a #serenity split tag on your blog with some info,,, i'm not really sure what's lost on discord sjdnf

— brick

Lol I'm glad your excited. (I spent like 4 hours working on this fic last night and am very VERY pleased with how it's going. I def needed to write something new after so much focus on other wips :3) And yeaaaaaah works just gonna be busy because of the holidays and such. Schools work differently in Australia so the long 6 week break starts next week and everyone wants there cars fixed :|

And oh my goodness I am so glad for my excessive need to categorise stuff with tags because the serenity split tag has been so good rereading all the info you've shared!

So I know you've been working on the plot but this is my suggestion based on what I found on the tag.

Phil is the one that found Tommy in an alley way. The man is literally the reason Tommy builds a relationship with first before being brought home to his residents and adopted. Phil basically saw this child and said: Is anyone going to adopt him? And did.

Now at the time, Tommy was still just a child so he basically took on the responsibility to raise Tommy. And even though it was strange how mature this child was, to Phil, Tommy was still just a boy and raised him as his own. He watched how he changed and grew.

Now we skip to the present and obviously Tommy's getting all his ingredients so he's probably distancing himself which Phil picks up on. He puts it down to Tommy maturing and wanting his own space so he does his best not pry. He thinks back to how Tommy once said that he wasn't actually from this world and was on a mission- but he put that down to an over active imagination.

Basically Phil is your "trying to be a good dad and looking out for his adopted son" father figure.

It would all come to head most likely when he discovers who Tommy really is and then would learn more about his realm and stuff.

I think Phil being mortal in this would work well but if given the opportunity, he might meet Lady death through Tommy and become smitten with her. You wouldn't have to elaborate on them too much from there but could def hint at Kristin being interested in him and that suddenly Phil is seeing some mysterious woman.

That would be my take on it and I think would be best.

If you wanted another route tho, I suggest since Lady Life did guide Tommy to the mortal realm, she could of spoken to her sister Lady death that she was worried about his safety and Death literally sends her best angel (AKA Phil whos been in the mortal realms for a while doing other things -no idea what tho) to find and look after tommy. But that would alter the first idea cause then he would know about the other realms and stuff. Up to you but that's what I can think of.

Concerned/Supportive father trope lol

Hope that helps <3

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

thoughts on 4WS? everybody and their mom knows the prelude,but would you be interested in talking about some of the other interesting vehicles with stuff like this?

or maybe other methods of decreasing turn radius?

I love the “everybody and their mom knows the Prelude”. Truly the embodiment of the silicate chemistry XKCD.

But sure! I can’t really say much about 4WS beyond “It’s when the rear tires steer opposite to the fronts to decrease turn radius at low speeds or when they steer with the fronts to increase stability at high speeds, and it really helps make cars be and feel more agile, which is why you see it on the new Range Rover and why you will probably see it in many other cars now that they are all ballooning out of proportion. Cool! Don’t park too close to curbs tho or your rear end will kick out into them and curb your wheels”, so let’s move on to… less orthodox ways to decrease turn radius.

You’d included a GIF of the Rivian “tank turn” which they were going to include in their models only to then not, but I took the liberty to place it next to a GIF of the BYD YangWang U8 showing it off at the latest and incredibly exciting Japan Mobility Salon [for some reason this post is stuck on the old editor so pretend that link is blue] to offer suitable accompaniement

(start at 1:36 if it doesn’t do so automatically)

Hope this will do in lieu of commentary because all I could offer is a demonstration of how many times I can type “what the fuck” in a row. Oh and if that wasn’t enough they also showed one do this.

I am genuinely pretty sure I came up with such a wheel design and then thought “no, this is stupid and absurd, forget I thought that” and then BYD was like “lol, lmao, rotfl even”.

But if you have wheels that don’t make you fear a robot uprising and surfaces that grip too hard to permit that Tchaikovskian bullshit, what are you to do?

Well, turn radius is a function of steering angle and wheelbase, so you can just alter those! Now, one would think the distance between the centers of your wheels would be pretty tough to alter, and indeed, it is. Well, it is pretty tough to alter without getting a wall involved and giving you more problems than you solved, if you know what I’m saying. Let alone to alter it reversibly. But some have done it! Enter Rinspeed, Swiss Porsche tuner turned concept car maker whose staying afloat I genuinely cannot explain, and more specifically its early-00s concept the Presto, a concept car that, once you realize you cannot for the life of you find four people willing to get near that horrendous front let alone in the thing, has the ability to cut your losses and accordionize itself.

“Yahchoo!”

Nice, Ron. And sure, the windshield is borderline nominal, the doors were sacrificed to the gimmick altar so one assumes you must get in Hazzard-style without even having a roof to paint something racist on, and it’s probably illegal in many fun new ways, but at least it’s gotta be a TON of fun.

You know what I suddenly feel like we should move on to something else. How about this thing?

“The Mk1 Golf?” Almost - as seen by the five bolt wheels, different bumpers and barely visible side vents, while this was an ordinary Mk1 Golf, Italo-Swiss tuning house Sbarro took care of that problem by shoving a Porsche 3.3L behind the front seats (what is this, Renault? [again, please record yourself saying “that link is blue” and play that recording back repeatedly over a spinning spiral GIF]). But the thing is, Franco Sbarro saw the whole ordeal and thought “Ah, but the engine that we put right in front of a the trunk lid is going to need accessing at some point. I must think of the most rational way to accomplish that”, and then made the car fucking open in two. What is it with Switzerland and cars doing this shit.

So yeah. If you were willing to spend an absolute fortune to make your Volkswagen Golf a positive deathtrap, you could, through an incredible and unimaginably dodgy feat of engineering, shorten your wheelbase by a measure I measured at comfortably under two inches. Now, I cannot think that makes much difference in turning radius, but hey, I’ve seen masculinities built and shattered over less.

Fortunately, the wheelbase is just one of the determining factors of turning radius, and the other, steering angle, is a pretty popular thing to increase through aftermarket components because it’s very important in drifting: as explained in this brilliant-as-always article from Speedhunters, since drifting consists of holding your car at a big angle relative to where you’re going, if you want to maintain that big angle you kind of need the front wheels to be able to be at a big angle relative to where the car is pointing.

Unfortunately, your steering wheel doesn’t stop turning just because it feels you got to turn it long enough already - it stops because the wheels are about to hit something. So in serious drift cars the front wheels have to be pushed outwards to keep them from encounter car as they turn. But of course, there is an alternative to pushing the wheels out - pushing the wheel wells in! That, in fact, is the technique employed by the personal driftcar of world champion Piotr Więcek...

....no, not the 800hp S15, I said the one he drives for fun.

Perfection. Indeed, since the last generation Twingo shares its platform with the Smart Forfour which itself shares bits and bobs with the historically rear-engined Smart Fortwo, the engine is in the rear, meaning the front wheels have nothing in between to stop them from turning outrageously wide, making its turning circle great for city driving, city parking, and apparently tandem drifting with an 800hp S15.

But I cannot talk about ways to facilitate street parking without talking about the first thing I ever received by email, in January 2011, or more than twelve years ago (yeah I know, sorry): a video of this car.

Apparently, it was an idea that had existed since the 50s, too!

I find this to be a really clever idea - you already need to bring the spare tire around anyway, and you already have a shaft spinning in that direction because that’s what connects the engine to the differential! Unfortunately though, nowadays most cars -especially the space-conscious ones- are front wheel drive, which would make implementing what already was a packaging nightmare to begin with take up even more space, probably to the point of being counterproductive. Unless perhaps you put the spare in front of the engine and redesigned the differential to *spends the next six months thinking about this*

[thelaurenshippen]

You mentioned that you got excited to write the shopping montage when you "realized a certain character would be sticking around." Was the initial uncertainty around that because you weren't sure how the story was going to unfold, or because of some of the real life complications around availability and casting? Stories definitely have a life of their own, but do you feel like you've got a fairly firm plan in mind with "Bridgewater?"

bridgewater spoilers below the cut!

a little bit of both! there's always some uncertainty around what's actually going to be possible production-wise and, of course, we did end up getting alan tudyk in as thomas bradshaw because nathan fillion couldn't come back. and we all couldn't be happier about that! nathan and alan are close friends and alan is doing such a wonderful job that it all really worked out well - but there was definitely a little bit of discussion around "well, do we want to recast or do we want to write thomas off" and ultimately decided that thomas was in so little of season 1 that recasting wouldn't be super disruptive.

I tend to only very broadly plan past a first season when I'm building a show, and usually I'm only focused on, like....the themes and vibes and character growth I want. so in bridgewater's case, I didn't have a S2 plan when writing S1 beyond "here's what I want for jeremy and anne to experience", which could manifest in a whole LOT of ways (this is extremely vague I know, but obviously I can't talk about it until the whole season is out). there was a moment where I thought about jeremy and anne hearing thomas' voice at the end being a fakeout and it actually turns out to be some kind of hallucination or weird paranormal trick, but aaron and I, like, BARELY entertained that. we really wanted jeremy to have the chance to get to know his dad and I love "man out of time" stories.

anyway, long story long, I didn't necessarily even have the arc of the plot and lore of S2 mapped out when we figured out how we wanted the season to end, if that makes sense. I had really clear goals in mind for the emotional journeys that each of the characters would go on, and toyed around with a few ways of getting there before I landed on the one I ended up writing. part of why I don't plot out the specific story beats beyond a first season is because a) I'm a very character-forward writer, so whatever is going to enable the characters to have the emotional arcs I want is what I follow and b) when actors are involved you just truly never know how that's going to transform things.

for instance, I've talked about this before, but jeremy didn't swear all that much on the page in S1, but misha threw in so many swears when we were recording that the S2 scripts had way more cursing for Jeremy from the start. I loved it, I loved how misha's perspective on the character and sensibility altered the way jeremy speaks - he's funnier in S2, with a drier wit, because misha is very funny with a dry wit. it's the same thing with anne - melissa plays her hard-nosed nature so well, but she also has this absolutely incredible softness to her, that I actually wrote her calling jeremy "sweetie" or "honey" in S2 a few times (which I have a lot of squishy feelings about, I just have a lot of squishy feelings about them in general bc of the chemistry that misha and melissa have). same thing with misha and karan - they had such a playful chemistry that it was really easy and nice to lean into the real genuine love and care that vipin and jeremy have for each other (this is, like, SUCH a minor spoiler for what's coming up next, but I was just listening to this episode today, and in future episodes people refer to vipin explicitly as jeremy's best friend because like....yeah, he totally is. jeremy is a pretty loner-ish guy and even though vipin is his TA there is a genuine closeness there).

so there's that kind of stuff that can shape the emotional journeys the characters go on which of course can shake up your plot completely (if anyone listened to The Bright Sessions and has heard me talk about this specific thing before, this is exactly what happened with mark/damien - that relationship was not supposed to result in one of them falling in love and the other one, like, kind of falling back a little against his better judgment (I mean, christ, damien was like the one character that when I started writing I was like 'yeah this guy is straight' turns out VERY much no) but it turned into that because the first time andrew and charlie sat down to record together as those characters it was INSTANT sparks. some of the wildest organic chemistry I've ever experienced as a director lol).

but then there's also the fact that sometimes your actors are your direct collaborators on building the story! of course aaron is my partner in crime in building the world of bridgewater, but for S2, because misha was on board before I even started writing it, the two of us had several conversations both as I was outlining and then after all the scripts were written about who jeremy was and what we wanted for him. so I tend to keep all my plans fairly loose because I love the spontaneous collaboration that comes out of working with other people.

YEESH that was such a long winded answer, but thank you for asking!

[looniecartooni]

i fully believe sexism was part of it. sarah was viewed as a weird insane lady even during her life, and i’ve always wondered how she felt about it and if she maybe played into a little? a woman with that much money and freedom was not the norm in her time period, but being seen as a grieving widow with a few screws loose was likely easier than being viewed as a woman who wanted to be taken seriously. but so much of the house is genuinely genius, and there’s a logic to a lot of the weirdest parts.

for instance, i always noticed how every room has multiple ways out, and there’s different routes to get anywhere in the house. part of our training involved being prepared for an emergency, and my favourite part of that test was when my manager took me to different parts of the house and would be like, okay, you’re in the north conservatory, and the staircase directly outside is on fire. what do you do? there’s always a way out, and a backup, and a second backup, and in the worst case scenario you can jump out a window or a door or off a ledge. (i was actually told that climbing down the roof from the fourth floor is a genuine strategy in a worst case scenario.) the house is weird but it’s functional in ways people don’t appreciate, like the corner pieces in the stairs that make them easier to sweep even now, or windows that swing open so you can wash them, or the absolutely ingenious laundry room that had built in scrub boards.

and as for the ghosts—sarah was really only tangentially related to the rifle company. her husband was president for all of four months before he died. there’s absolutely no basis for sarah being haunted by spirits killed by the rifle. but she was by all accounts a wonderful employer who had employees that worked for her for decades. they were well paid, fed, housed, and she even paid for their children’s schooling. the energy in the house never felt malicious to me—even 100 years after sarah’s death it feels like a home. i’m thoroughly convinced the spirits are her former employees, still caring for the house after all these years, and i know when i die i fully intend to haunt winchester. it’s a beautiful, loving crafted home and it always makes me happy to see other people recognize it as more than just “weird scary house”.

it is funny though because people always ask me for ghost stories and all the ones i have are “i heard ghost dogs barking” and “ghosts said merry christmas to me”.

(also if there’s anything you’re curious about, i might have answers!)

Sarah was a genius! I mostly know about how she adapted the architecture of the house to her arthritis, but yeah- she was always experimenting and teaching herself all she could. And I heard from multiple sources as well that she was very kind to her employees and their kids. The kids would call her Auntie Sallie and the gardener even gave his daughter the middle name "Winchester". These kids and employees would try to defend Sarah multiple times after her death. She saw her staff as like family.

According to most f my research though (though some of it may have been bias with this fact), Sarah did NOT like being rumored as a crazy ghost lady and it may have had her shut herself off more. When John Brown purchased the estate after her death and turned it into a tourist trap, he apparently made some alterations to the house as well to play more into the "crazy ghost lady" narrative. He would like add candles and chandeliers to play into the idea that "she was obsessed with the number 13" and stuff like that.

Another reason according to Ralph Rambo, who was a historian and a relative of one of the employees, people liked to make up these rumors because this was a seriously loaded rich lady who was associated with a popular company, travelling across the state and working on a never-ending project. Sexism plays a huge role, but so does being rich and reclusive (which comes from losing several family members in a row in the same year on her husband's side and 1 or 2 on her side). It makes sense that her husband would have only been president of the company for about four months. His father was the one that made the change from the Winchester company from being a clothing company of sorts to a rifle arms company and if I'm not mistaken, he did die in the same year William Winchester did.

The Winchester looks like a very nice house with a beautiful garden and flower conservatory. I can understand why you'd want to haunt it after you die. Its crazy just how much so many people miss or misunderstand because they are so tied up on the idea that Sarah was a crazy ghost lady and it only got worse after her death. Now its difficult to find the truth, but we are living in an age where more people want to know the truth behind people who's legacies are tainted and shrouded in misinformation. Its really good for us to discuss these things and there's so much to discuss about the Manor functionality wise and decorative wise. I really hope Sarah becomes more and more recognized as the person she was rather than the person she was made out to be over a hundred years ago.

[styrofauxm]

can i just...rant about the online minecraft community for a moment here? I haven't really noticed this on Tumblr but I see it everywhere else and I really need to just fully vent. Specifically about the reaction to the updates/mob votes.

every single fucking year when there's an update a significant portion of the community becomes the most entitled shitheads ever born.

Mojang not adding a feature you want is not Mojang scamming you. When you bought the game, you bought the game as it was. You paid for that, and that only. The updates are free. You not liking the free stuff you get or wanting more free stuff is a you problem.

Furthermore, Mojang isn't being lazy by not adding every feature you want. They aren't making a mod that people can use or not use at will. They are fundamentally altering a game with a massive and diverse playerbase. Everything they add has to appeal to, or at least not annoy, the vast majority of the playerbase.

In addition, nobody owes you anything. You paid for the game. You got the game. The transaction is over. There is no binding contract or moral imperative to give you anything more than that. If you GENUINELY think you DESERVE something from any update, you are an entitled brat. Sorry, not sorry.

Along those lines, harassing employees in comment sections is trashy behavior. You have a problem? There's a feedback site. There's pages for updates too. Go write out a reasonable, well-meaning report. And don't fucking like comments that are clearly just mean.

Calling employees lazy in response any post/video they make is harassment. You want to do that privately? Go ahead. But there is no reason to put it in places they are likely to see it unless you want them to see it.

Yes, all of that applies to Caves and Cliffs pt.1. Yes, all of that applies to Caves and Cliffs pt.2. Yes all of that applies to the Wild Update. No, your comment is not the exception.

And don't forget the absolute dumpster fire that is any comment section about the mob vote.

Fun fact: someone simply expressing they they like/don't like an option is not a personal attack. Responding to "I want/don't want ___ mob" comments with "you suck" (or normally much much worse) is cyberbullying. If you do that, you are a bully.

If someone expresses an opinion you do not like there are a few options that don't involve hurting someone's mental health:

don't respond. don't do anything. move on with your day

dislike the comment. move on with your day

respectfully disagree with a phrase like "I don't agree" or "I actually see it this way" and have a civil discussion

Also, it's a game. It's literally a video game. It has no impact on your real life. You can walk away if you hate it that bad.

I know most of the people in those comment sections are children. But I watched MCYT as a child and never bullied or harassed anyone.

[ivyblooms]

Hiiii this might be weird lol but I saw your addition to the post discussing the correlation between the gay trans men phenomenon to misogyny and you brought up the topic of rising trans slash in fanfics - as someone whose been in fandoms for like 10+ years you’re sooo right!! Even though I do read all sorts of fanfic (gay, lesbian, platonic) I’d say I’ve always had a more critical approach in fandom stuff (plus getting more into radfem theory about 3 years ago) and from the get go I always saw the ~majority~ of male slash fanfic created by women as an expression of romance/smut through a non-misogynistic lens; “men get to be people while women are women yadda yadda”. A perception I’ve always had at the back of my mind, so it always confused me when in the past 5ish years suddenly women who had consumed so much gay fanficton were proclaiming they must actually be gay men

You mentioned the rise in trans slash media and honestly I thought I was going crazy lol. There has definitely been a huge shift, where suddenly the components that made the work gay could just be altered and it’s supposedly still the same. Apologies if this seems vulgar but the switch to now male characters actually being trans, feminization in sexual/non sexual manners, and sometimes just having a “boyp*ssy” at minimum has been really fucking weird, and in some fandom spaces I’m in the change seems to have skyrocketed in the past ~6 months

Honestly sorry for the random ramble and feel free to disregard but I would love to know if you have anymore to say on this topic. I think I’ve only encountered one light discussion overlapping fanfiction / feminist theory, so it’s always interesting when I see the topic brought up!

No worries sis, it's not weird.

I am there with you. I'd been noticing the trend but when I wanted to have a quick look at Captain Marvel femslash I was like 3 pages of results in and still hadn't seen one that didn't include 'girlpenis' or equivalent. I was legit annoyed, the last thing anyone wants when looking for fxf is the word penis getting involved.

I don't want to discount homophobic fetishisation of course. As a lesbian I never really believed that was real until I finally saw some hetero fandom friends genuinely being sexually attracted to males cast in live action versions of a cartoon and I was like .. wait a second u guys were serious?? So yeah thats real, but I highly doubt it's the main reason. Especially when so many lesbians are super into slash fic as well.

So to your point, while I do think the popularity of gay male slash fiction has largely been due to women wanted to escape misogyny, I don't believe it's been a conscious thought. I don't believe many of these girls and women actively thought they are lesser than men, I don't think choosing to write mxm was a decision to highlight misogyny, I think it's just an entirely internalised 'feeling' that somehow putting a woman with a man is demeaning or inequitable therefore they want their favourite blorbo to be with someone that doesnt give them that feeling. And, to straight women, men are hot.

Like notice how so many of the pov men in older mxm fics are the one that bottoms? Even the concept of strict set in stone roles for top and bottom defining your character (seme and uke) really is more reminiscent of hetero relationships that actual real life gay relationships. I truly do think there is reason to believe this is due to making one character (the bottom) more relatable as a subconscious woman stand in. They were always shorter, they were almost always weaker, they had less body hair, they were almost always prettier and more feminine, their male genitalia was small and often barely remarked on and there was no question that their main participation in sex was being penetrated. They were trans men before the idea of trans men and gender being unrelated to sex really ramped up.

It makes perfect sense to me that the next step in that train of thought, that men and women feel unequal and gender is not related to sex, is "well I relate to men as an equal therefore I must also be a man". Like if you haven't stepped back to understand your own bias, how would you ever realise the true answer is women are equal humans despite the way the world treats us? It's not correct and it comes from a place of homophobia where straights consider gayness a club they can join on a whim rather than a meaningful material experience, but it's understandable that's the leap being made.

You are right, it has gotten so much worse over the last six months. Maybe ABO has finally become truely accepted and now anyone feels they can put any genitals on any character like its a mix and match. Maybe trans ideology has finally fully taken over the majority of fandom spaces. Maybe actual gay writers and fans got sick of so much unwanted hetero we have started dropping out of popular fandom spaces.

Seriously trying to find gay fanfiction now is so much harder than ever before, but it's something people not in fandom spaces are missing because if you see nothing more than the characters in ships you'd think it was gay. Fandom spaces are becoming hostile to homosexuality in a way I wouldn't have predicted 10 years ago. I think they probably always were, tbh, it was just that misogynistic straight women didn't realise they had another option and could get by on the fetish until they found this solution.

[maskspurpose]

anon asked: hi maybe u talked about this before but can u explain why wataru rejected natsumes script joined fine and distanced himself from rest of gokijin

I probably have but it's one of those things... I THINK Altered may be the story where they go more into it outside of what is already in Element, if you wanna check that out but the main reason Wataru rejected the script is because at this point the Eccentrics had already lost-- Kanata and Shu both lost explicitly, Rei was genuinely too tired to do much of anything, essentially just leaving Wataru and Natsume... whatever Natsume's plan was it likely wouldn't have worked at this point and just led to more pain for everyone. 

Part two of this is that none of the Eccentrics wanted Natsume to be involved at this point, that's kind of what Wataru is getting at when he tells Natsume he's "a normal, good child" in Element? He's normal enough to pass as one of the students and hasn't been raised to the level of "monster" yet that the others have, all of them want to prevent that. 

Umm the rest is kinda up to interpretation in many ways I guess? Wataru distanced himself from the Eccentrics because he joined fine and he joined fine because he became interested in Eichi as a character, which potentially also played in his decision to lose against exfine, that's the stuff that's kinda theoretically explained in Blackbird. Wataru's approach to decisions like that is to build himself a new persona and you can tell he acts differently in second vs third year. The chapter of his life as one of the Eccentrics ended and so he now has to build himself a new persona. I think that's how Wataru would explain it.

I very genuinely personally believe that Wataru stopped contacting the Eccentrics because he made the decision to join fine/Eichi and assumed they would be really mad at him for betraying them. You can like... see hints of that in various stories: In Easter Night he approaches Tsumugi rather than Natsume about a performance chance for Switch despite Natsume being like the obvious point of contact (he does something similar with Nazuna at the end of Marionette but that doesn't pan out the way Wataru wants I think), he talks vaguely about it with Rei in Aquarium where Rei brings up he used to be worried about Wataru and there's one conversation between Wataru and Kanata in... QuarrelFes iirc where Wataru hesitates to refer to Kanata as a friend until Kanata reaffirms that they ARE friends. You can also read something similar into the scenes with Shu and Wataru in FlowerFes. 

Wataru doesn't really expect people to stick with him for very long (this comes up somewhere in theater club, probably T&M? as well as his conv with Hokuto in Kiseki) and by now prefers to cut contact with people first before they do it to him and I think this is one of those cases. If he ghosts the Eccentrics first, they won't be able to tell him he's a horrible person for joining fine. 

[Smile or comment on the answer here]

[yellowocaballero]

You're writing's really unique, so I'm curious what your answers would be to questions 30 and 39 on the fic question list, if no one's asked you yet

(took a while to get to this sry jaldf) These are really good Qs. The first answer is actually pretty long.

30. Have you ever written something that was out of your comfort zone? If so, what was it, and how did it affect your approach to writing fic thereafter?

Yes. Almost every fic I write and publish on AO3 is out of my comfort zone. I think the biggest example is Martin from my TMA days - you can tell in my early stuff I really just had NO idea what to do with him, so I sat down and wrote an introspective Martin-focused piece. So I could write a fic from his POV and another fic half from his POV. I figured out how to write a good Martin by the end of it. I frequently write characters I'm uncomfortable with just to get them down better. I do this with genre too - I write a lot of genres I'm unfamiliar with and that I kind of hate, just to practice skills and learn storytelling and tropes better. I also mimic writing styles and methods of storytelling I really admire. This involves a ton of research, which is all very stupid.

I think to answer that question in a different way, too - I cover a lot of topics that are really easy to do very badly, and to probably do them pretty offensively. My Iron Fist fic was really, really dramatically out of my lane and really out of my comfort zone on the topic (about being from two cultures, being an immigrant, and being adopted) and I was drawing a lot from cultures that I was completely unfamiliar with. I really don't regret writing that story though. It ended up so good.

In Human Resources that I wrote ages ago, I ended up being kind of forced to write about the impact of slavery on a Black Briton in the 1800s. Obviously I don't like writing about slavery. But at a certain point it's disingenuous not to. It would be dishonest not to talk about the impact of slavery on a Black person in the 1800s. I decided that it was the lesser evil to talk about that effect on Jon than it was to just politely pretend it didn't exist. Additionally, to make it worse, Jon was the bad guy in that fic and kind of a fascist. Bad character to make shaped by slavery lol. He was in a kinda abusive friendship with Jonah, who took advantage of the effect that slavery had on his life and his easily exploited position in 1800s society. It was a lot....but I couldn't not talk about it. And once I did, I had to realize that these formative experiences were the base, visceral, root reason for everything he did. Everything that guy did is because he's from the 1800s. But that just ended up informing the final lesson there that Jon was a good person - he just never got the chance to be good. And despite all of the horror he's lived through, he will still choose to be a good person if he just has the chance. Also that he was a girlboss for his atrocities in the 1800s he could just do whatever. He was valid in all his murders until like 1970 I'm serious. Writing this Jon actually really impacted how I thought about environmental and situational trauma.

Lastly, writing Moon Knight and the DID thing was obviously out of my comfort zone too. I just did some cursory research at first, because I wanted to be respectful but I didn't want the story to be about DID. The first two stories I wrote for MK were comic books, 100% - ungrounded, fictionalized, and made for a narrative. This is how I avoided having to write DID realistically haha.

Then I got more comfortable with it and more interested in Marc as a character. I ended up writing a story that was way, way, way more directly about Marc's issues. That was genuinely pretty out of my comfort zone. And the story I'm writing right now, I am being SO INSENSITIVE -

The way I decided to write Jake ("What if local alter was a complete stereotype? What if I called him an evil serial killer constantly?") was a, uh, risky move. But I stand by it. It created a great character. I just had to be really excruciatingly careful about how I wrote him lol. I think I succeeded!!

So yeah always out of my comfort zone lol. But that's what's funnnnnn. I like to learn & grow. I rub my little raccoon hands at the chance to do something new and exciting. Writing is hype and I love to see myself do badly at a novel the first time and knock it out of the park a second time.

39. Is any aspect of your writing process inspired by other writers or people? If so, who?

For sure. My comedy is directly in the style of Catch-22, and other very fast paced frenetic style comedies like that. Pushing Daisies also in terms of strangeness and kinda quirkiness. Buffy also had to be an impact on my banter. I like comedy where it feels like you're inhaling a deep breath and then saying everything as fast as possible on the exhale.

Wait the question is asking for the actual process. Uh no, no process. I don't have a writing process. When I'm really in the middle of a story I sit down after work and I write until I go to bed, pausing only for life stuff. Writing itself is just sitting down in a chair in my free time and beating out the tunes, it's not complicated. I've started outlining lately, which is nice. The story idea almost always comes from joking and throwing around ideas with friends, which is...new, probably.

From what I get it's a little backwards, but mostly I'm like "hmm I want to write" and then I pick something to write. When I want to write something specific it's more from a place of "I REALLY want to finish this story". It's only sometimes the other way around. I was like "I'm rly into Moon Knight right now and I want to write somethingg" so I thought about it nonstop and joked with friends until I had a solid idea. I ask people to give me writing ideas but yall are USELESS A LOT OF THE TIME.

I don't write every day but it's what I like to do the best. I do it when I'm bored or when I need a distraction. My friends look over it and give feedback sometimes. I do it to destress. Dunno how other people do it lol.

[selfindulgentfandomstuff]

YOU SHOULD TELL ME ABOUT CECIL!!!!!!! THIS IS A THREAT /lh

HIII YESS TYY FOR GIVING ME AN OPPORTUNITY TO INFODUMP !!

(Btw, the reason I haven’t answered this one until now is bc I’ve been wanting to sit down and really give a good infodump ahaah!!)

OKAY SO

basics first and then I’ll get into stuff like how Cecil and Ellison meet and stuff

———

Cecil

-he/they/it pronouns

-man-thing-adjacent (??) (he’s not a man but he does present mostly masculine)

-guardian angel (which is a lower ranked type of angel in the hierarchy of angels I have in my head and need to type out sometime lol)

-very silly, happy go lucky type of guy

-charming, in how genuine his happiness is (I feel like most people who are as upbeat as Cecil are putting on some kind of front, but Cecil straight up just is that optimistic and joyful!)

-that being said he is very aware of the suffering that so many humans endure and he does his best to bring hope and joy into the lives of as many humans as he can while on Earth, despite his job technically only being to watch over one assigned person

-speaking of that.. Cecil’s job is basically to watch over a single human, Ellison Gates, until they complete their Objective (term Heaven has for important achievements made by particularly critical human individuals)

-now, getting a little more into Objectives..

-not every human has an Objective, in fact, they are relatively rare, with only a select few individuals having an achievement in their lifetime so important that it alters the course of human progression in a major way aka an Objective

-Ellison’s Objective is to be a key part of a team of physicists and engineers who will invent faster than light travel, something which will allow for a myriad of other discoveries and human advancements

-the thing about Objectives, though, is that once a human has completed their Objective, Heaven kinda.. doesn’t give a shit anymore. That is to say, once a human has served their purpose, Heaven is pretty ambivalent to whether or not that human continues living on Earth or dies and comes to Heaven

-this is important information for later to keep in mind Btw…

-anyways, back to Cecil and Ellison specifically!!

-Cecil’s job is basically, now that Ellison has shown that they are on the right track to complete their Objective, to make sure they stay alive until they do

-it’s just that Cecil gets a little too attached to this particular human..

———

How they meet

-Cecil has not been involved in Ellison’s life until around the time they’re finishing their undergraduate education

-he gets himself a job as a barista at the local coffee shop they frequent nearby the campus of their university

-when Ellison first sees that there’s a new employee they are a bit worried

-what if he gets my drink wrong? What if he mispronounces my name??

-but Cecil quickly proves to be an exemplary employee there, quickly memorizing Ellison’s favorites and anticipating their orders

-Ellison chalks his accuracy up to good intuition and quick learning

-in reality, Cecil had spent some time studying Ellison’s life before coming to Earth, of course he knew that they liked ice chai lattes on Mondays and Wednesdays and iced mango tea on Fridays.. the packet had a lot of little tidbits of information like that…

-Ellison uses the cafe as a study hall of sorts quite often and Cecil tends to distract them by chatting with them while he works

-he takes quite an interest in Ellison and Ellison finds themself stupidly charmed by this chatty and surprisingly intuitive barista

-eventually Ellison asks him out to lunch, something for which Cecil is ecstatic about

-he didn’t make any romantic advances earlier bc he figured it was probably against conduct for an angel to make a move on their human charge

-but if said human was the one to make a move.. well, he could work with that….

———

I will add more later if I think of anything but I think this is good for now haha!!

Tyy again Viktor!!!

Stay safe and happy!!! <333

[mcalhenwrites]

It took me far too long to realize that all the hard work had paid off and continued to do so, in regards to my writing. In the past, when I'd feel proud of a story or a scene, I'd immediately scramble back to, "Well, someone will read it, and they'll find the flaws, and they'll know I'm an imposter."

Every single person who writes - even those who've done it 50, 60 years - doesn't do it perfectly. That's impossible.

The definition of what makes "good" writing also varies per person. I personally love it when the writing style is a bit more poetic (you can see that influence slowly infiltrating my own work) and we hear details about the characters that give us more depth about their background and personality. Meanwhile, some people want that to be kept vague and for the story to cut to the chase.

I though my writing was too simple/basic, and I've been told my writing wasn't good enough for anyone to read in writing circles. I've been told my characters all fall into the same category. There's more history with this, but people read my fics and my original works and still liked them. I know these things weren't true then and they're especially not true now, but I was so insecure and afraid that I believed the negative commentary most.

I don't think being hard on myself was all that helpful, either. So none of that improved me. My methods of going about improvement did, but I might have done better at this stage in life if I hadn't let terrible people confirm my negative feelings.

(This isn't about criticism, either. I like concrit! But insulting someone's work or tearing it down in a public space for your friends to have a go just makes you a shitty person. It doesn't make you helpful whatsoever.)

I've also not been able to trust writing circles for years, which sucks. I have some friends who also write, but I'm typically pretty careful and don't do well integrating into new writing circles. Not really fair to the writers in them, so I've finally dipped out of trying to get involved in any until I figure out how to socialize without fearing that I'll end up the butt of all jokes.

And getting over that is hard, I tell you. Even now, I hesitate. "My writing might actually be all those things, and I'm defying reason by saying it's good." Only to then realize that if I wrote exactly like those people's favorite authors, but they knew it was me, it wouldn't matter how good it was. They were out to make fun. Maybe that stems from jealousy or just their own general insecurity that makes them need to drag down others with them. I'm sure some were not into whatever I was writing, but it's improtant to learn how to handle that without being cruel to the author and their work.

All I can really do about it is make sure that's the type of writer I never become. That's the best I can do: support writers by buying books, leaving genuine commentary on AO3, and enjoying my own writing journey.

I love writing. The joy of creating characters and worlds, of weaving them into words... I love that entire process so much. I told myself a year ago - when I took down all my writing from the public eye and locked my works in a private AO3 collection - that I wanted to focus on that for a while. It helped me so much to take a step back for about three months. I also don't mind that most of that stuff is still private.

I did leave up a couple of anon works, but only because I didn't want them to disappear at the same time that all my other writing did. (And those are still anon, and people don't know I've written them.)

These days, I still worry that even the writing I've set aside for publication will never take off, and that I won't have my writing career, but... that's never going to stop me from writing any of it. At this point, I don't think anything beyond a life-altering severe health issue or death is capable of stopping me.

This doesn't mean I doubt my writing quality! I think that the book industry isn't particularly great to begin with, and self-publication is complicated when you have to be your own PR person. What I write is also not for everyone. It's a little weird to say it's niche, as if that makes it special, but I just mean that it might only ever appeal to a small group of people.

I have to keep writing what's in my heart. But after all this time, I'm glad I'm still here, that I have always and will always write what I need to, for myself.

And it's also okay if I want to monetize some of it and share some of it for free, if I want to post or publish it because I think it's good enough to share. Libraries and book stores exist because people do that. We now have the internet to share our writing, whether it be original or fic, and I think that's a beautiful thing. (Side note that fic is just as valuable as original, and I don't condone saying one is better than the other. That's needlessly cruel to people who work hard on their writing writing, regardless of what they write. The publishing industry has its messes, but fics/fandoms do too, and you just have to find the writers who deliver what you like. If you exclusively prefer fic to original or original to fic, that's fine, just don't make your personal tastes a reason to insult millions of writers whose works you've never read. As an author of both and as a fan of authors who write both... I have a wider pool of writing to enjoy!) Anyway, I suppose I'll always fight some imposter syndrome, but... it's nice to also recognize my own skill level. It's nice to have others recognize it, too. I do think that helps a little. We all need some support and encouragement. We shouldn't forget our roots, but it's not necessary to take the journey through writing alone unless that's what we prefer. :)

[upsidedowngrass]

(The “post charlotte now” anon) THANK YOU that is exactly how I interpreted her character! I’m so happy someone else sees her in the same light as me, it’s kinda tiring seeing the negativity towards her (understandable tbh since she barely ever showed a positive attitude and only towards the end) since what she struggles with is an actual real life issue that usually is a result of trauma, it’s the worst mindset to ever be in and it leaves you and everyone who cares about you hurt, if not leaves you completely alone because you keep pushing everyone away thinking nobody’s ever genuine with you and there’s some nasty ulterior motives for their “kind” actions, it sucks and in a way i’m glad she somewhat snapped out of it after dying and being in the waiting room, obviously that world view wouldn’t disappear into thin air but i feel like she’s gonna be a bit more mindful now,i noticed her being a bit less hostile too and i was wondering how people didn’t notice that or at least don’t care to talk about it?, also you’re so right about charlotte being included with Amelia and bryce if they ever moved in together i feel like she’d at least stay in touch w them, arguably to me charlotte is one of the best written one characters if you really look into her

I also remembered people saying she’s an awful person because she’s painting her friends as these bad people like guys….she genuinely thinks they pity her and only care about their own image obviously she’s gonna tell other people the same thing, and her lying about not knowing there was fungus in the caves honestly also seemed like her not wanting to admit she’s wrong to not worsen her already very fragile self image, i feel like she doesn’t like being confronted about her mistakes because it just sucks being confronted about something you struggle to overcome (recklessness, awful spending habits, distrust of others that comes off as “having an ego”, etc) it even might come off as preachy, so overall i love charlotte’s character and how complex she is, i hope more people see your post i’m tired of her being painted as a manipulative asshole she just seems like she’s gone through some stuff that made her that way like no way you distrust everyone for no serious reason

YAA charlotte is like... a loooottt of how she acts really feels like its deeply rooted in Smth, and while its never specified what it is (or if there IS smth its based in, but it really does read like it is) and ultimately, the specific WHAT isnt really relevant, and it doesnt excuse her actions!! but shes def not like. evil or anything? people arent as patient w her character as they are for others who do similarly shitty things in the series and its genuinely a little like. shes not Bad Forever And Always. shes improving by the end of the series, at least somewhat, and shes not gonna be PERFECT right off the bat, and issues w trust arent easy to get rid of, if you can be rid of them entirely, but i think having the actions of her friends be recontextualized as not malicious like. genuinely has helped w her character growth, and she CAN improve and IS improving

also?? the thing abt her lying . sooooo tru. i think that her lying abt not knowing abt the fungus can really easily be read as her Deliberately trying to manipulate ppl abt her experiences, and while i DO think she does explain things in ways that make her look better (like u said, very likely to save image . bc she ALREADY has expressed that she doesnt like being belittled) its not malicious. that doesnt make it GOOD, but ppl painting all of her actions as Bad and Evil isnt doing her character any justice. shes a SUPER complex character, and i think she unfortunately gets overlooked bc she isnt Obviously part of liam amelia and bryces 'group.' she IMMEDIATELY was ok with the competition and so she doesnt get as involved in the main plot of trying to leave the plane. but i think shes a bit like julien in that, she doesnt ACTIVELY alter the plot in any super significant way, but she IS important narratively, i think. she shows someone similar to taylor, who WANTED to participate, but also someone who DOES ignore the worst parts of whats going on. shes a LOT like airy, easily adaptable, prone to isolation, and not always good at reading the wants or needs of others. but charlotte (and ive seen this mentioned before somewhere?) shows, at the end of the series, the Best case scenario for airy (were he not stuck in his world)

ANWYAY this is a lot but like. man charlotte is SUCH an amazing character. charlotte i am SO sorry everyone overlooks your awesome writing